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 Control is probably the most important part of wealth-building. There are lessons all over right now about what happens when you don't control your investments. The Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, the stock market and the failing of some 529 college savings plans are a couple of recent examples of what can happen when you give up control.

Let's start out with my definition of control:

Investing Control: The ability to directly influence or impact the future value and net income of the investment.

Investing control is important for any type of investment you consider.

For the stock market, this means controlling a majority of a company's shares. Now, this is extremely difficult for average people, like you and me. This is why we should invest a smaller portion of our money into the stock market. The SEC even has rules in place to prevent the common guy from owning or controlling more than a set percentage of the outstanding shares anyway.

However, you could invest and obtain control of smaller, non-public companies through joint venture agreements and the like. By having control, you can directly impact the growth, income and expenses of the business, hence your return of investment.

For real estate, the best investors want active control over their properties. Active control can be obtained in partnerships and individual investments alike. Most people would rather be passive real estate investors. The tiny few who grow wealthy prefer to be active investors.

The majority of families focus their investments into assets they do not control. This is why they struggle to accumulate "real" wealth. This is also why many people will not have enough money accumulated when they retire.

In fact, it boggles my mind that most people prefer not to be in control of their investments. They would much rather have an mutual fund planner, stockbroker or someone else control their money. "Done for you" wealth is not available. You are going to have to do much of it yourself. You do it by controlling assets.

It is perfectly fine to invest a small portion of your money into investments you do not control. But I would be very careful investing large sums of your money into uncontrollable investments. I have investments in assets that I do not control. However, these investments now represent a small portion of my net worth. I have control over the assets in where most of my money is invested.
These same assets also represent the largest portion of my net worth.

If you study wealthy people, you'll quickly see that they do the exact opposite of everyone else. They desire, fight for and cherish control. Everyone else desires, cherishes and pays big money to have no control. Notice the difference.


I remember reading a biography on billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian. In every single investment Kerkorian made, he fought for control. When he didn't have control over an investment, he quickly divested himself of the investment. Same goes for Wayne Huzienga, who built three separate billion-dollar companies (Waste Management, Blockbuster and Republic Industries).

Experience has shown me that most people prefer passive investments because they are easier. Passive investments allow the investor to invest without having to take any responsibility. Passive investments do not require the investor to be decisive. Passive investments do not require the investor get his hands dirty.

Control requires that you take responsibility for your investments. Control requires you to be active. Control requires that you pay attention. Control requires that you be decisive. Control requires you to roll up your sleeves and get dirty every once in awhile. Some believe control is risky. I believe lack of control is risky.

Once you have control of your investment, you should work hard to increase its value. You increase value by increasing its income.

One of the most valuable wealth-building skills you can have in life is the ability to increase the net income of your investments. With this skill, you can literally write your own ticket.

For example, Kerkorian purchased enough stock to control MGM Studios in the late 1960s. By the early 1970s, he had built the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas. This hotel and casino dramatically impacted the value of MGM's stock. Guess what happened to Kirk's wealth? Within three years, his wealth was in excess of $100 million.

This is how powerful control can be. Could Kerkorian have created $100 million if he wasn't in control? No.

You must strive for control over your investments. Control is critical for true wealth. Don't be lazy. Take the time to educate yourself so that you can ask better questions. Don't copy the masses and happily turn over control to your hard earned money.

 Control is probably the most important part of wealth-building. There are lessons all over right now about what happens when you don't control your investments. The Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, the stock market and the failing of some 529 college savings plans are a couple of recent examples of what can happen when you give up control.

Let's start out with my definition of control:

Investing Control: The ability to directly influence or impact the future value and net income of the investment.

Investing control is important for any type of investment you consider.

For the stock market, this means controlling a majority of a company's shares. Now, this is extremely difficult for average people, like you and me. This is why we should invest a smaller portion of our money into the stock market. The SEC even has rules in place to prevent the common guy from owning or controlling more than a set percentage of the outstanding shares anyway.

However, you could invest and obtain control of smaller, non-public companies through joint venture agreements and the like. By having control, you can directly impact the growth, income and expenses of the business, hence your return of investment.

For real estate, the best investors want active control over their properties. Active control can be obtained in partnerships and individual investments alike. Most people would rather be passive real estate investors. The tiny few who grow wealthy prefer to be active investors.

The majority of families focus their investments into assets they do not control. This is why they struggle to accumulate "real" wealth. This is also why many people will not have enough money accumulated when they retire.

In fact, it boggles my mind that most people prefer not to be in control of their investments. They would much rather have an mutual fund planner, stockbroker or someone else control their money. "Done for you" wealth is not available. You are going to have to do much of it yourself. You do it by controlling assets.

It is perfectly fine to invest a small portion of your money into investments you do not control. But I would be very careful investing large sums of your money into uncontrollable investments. I have investments in assets that I do not control. However, these investments now represent a small portion of my net worth. I have control over the assets in where most of my money is invested.
These same assets also represent the largest portion of my net worth.

If you study wealthy people, you'll quickly see that they do the exact opposite of everyone else. They desire, fight for and cherish control. Everyone else desires, cherishes and pays big money to have no control. Notice the difference.


I remember reading a biography on billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian. In every single investment Kerkorian made, he fought for control. When he didn't have control over an investment, he quickly divested himself of the investment. Same goes for Wayne Huzienga, who built three separate billion-dollar companies (Waste Management, Blockbuster and Republic Industries).

Experience has shown me that most people prefer passive investments because they are easier. Passive investments allow the investor to invest without having to take any responsibility. Passive investments do not require the investor to be decisive. Passive investments do not require the investor get his hands dirty.

Control requires that you take responsibility for your investments. Control requires you to be active. Control requires that you pay attention. Control requires that you be decisive. Control requires you to roll up your sleeves and get dirty every once in awhile. Some believe control is risky. I believe lack of control is risky.

Once you have control of your investment, you should work hard to increase its value. You increase value by increasing its income.

One of the most valuable wealth-building skills you can have in life is the ability to increase the net income of your investments. With this skill, you can literally write your own ticket.

For example, Kerkorian purchased enough stock to control MGM Studios in the late 1960s. By the early 1970s, he had built the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas. This hotel and casino dramatically impacted the value of MGM's stock. Guess what happened to Kirk's wealth? Within three years, his wealth was in excess of $100 million.

This is how powerful control can be. Could Kerkorian have created $100 million if he wasn't in control? No.

You must strive for control over your investments. Control is critical for true wealth. Don't be lazy. Take the time to educate yourself so that you can ask better questions. Don't copy the masses and happily turn over control to your hard earned money.

Check out today's featured content on Realtor.com blogs

http://www.realtor.com/blogs/2009/08/06/the-impact-of-foreclosures-on-renters/

As a young boy, Warren Buffett read a book titled 1,000 Ways to Make $1,000. Warren quickly calculated that these ideas would bring him a million dollars. I loved the title of this book. So I went searching on the internet and I found an updated version of the book at http://tinyurl.com/knrsqt for $19. One of the free bonuses that comes with the new version is the original book that Warren Buffett read many years ago. Amazing!

Here are a few of the ideas presented in the new version of the book:

1.   Become a Used Car Broker: Couldn’t you help people sell their used cars and charge them 5% to 10% of the selling price? One of the best ways to sell a used car is by listing it in Craigslist. You could advertise their car for free and pocket 5% to 10% of the sales price. You could probably sell one car a week creating a few thousand dollars a month of extra income. This was idea # 9 in the book.

2.   Offer a Data Retrieval Service: Apparently you can download free software from the internet that allows you to retrieve lost or deleted items from your computer. Run an advertisement in the Yellow Pages and on Craigslist and help people retrieve lost data for a fee. I think you might be surprised at how much you could make with this new service. This was idea number #14.

3.   Become a Consultant to Local Contractors: You could teach electricians, plumbers, painters how to offer warranties to their customers. The contractor could offer this warranty to their customers as an “up-sell” and dramatically increase their income. A lot of people by warranties, but never use them. You can create the warranty contracts, certificates and sales literature for the contractor to use and charge them $1,000. This could then become a turn-key service you offer to contractors in different industries. This was idea #42.

4.   Start a Pressure Washing Business for Home Owners. You can buy a top of the line pressure washer for about $1,000. You can then charge $300 to pressure wash someone’s home and/or deck. Your initial investment would be recovered after the 4th job. Advertise this new business for free on Craigslist. Once the pressure washer is paid for, you don’t have any overhead! This was idea #118,

5.   Help Local Businesses Market to Local Residents Via Email: Offer a $1,000 shopping spree at your local grocery store. To register for the $1,000 spree, customers will have to give their email address and sign up for your local email newsletter. The email list could then become very profitable by allowing other businesses to advertise their specials and discounts. Depending on the size of your email list, you could make several thousand dollars a month. You would obviously have to select a winner and pay the $1,000 for the shopping spree. In essence, you’re buying a list of local residents email addresses for $1,000. This was idea #121.

6.   Create a Newsletter That Helps Small Businesses Motivate their Employees: It’s a constant challenge for small businesses to keep their employees motivated and excited. You can produce motivational monthly newsletter for them to use with their employees. This newsletter could obviously be sold to other small businesses giving you the opportunity to leverage one monthly newsletter into thousands of dollars of monthly income. You could then offer these same small businesses a special monthly newsletter for their customers, too! Before you know it, you’ll have a small publishing empire! This was idea #124 and #140.

I’ve only included a handful of ideas from the book for you. There are 1,000 ideas in the book. Some are off the wall, but many are very good. At a minimum, these ideas will help you see opportunities that you might not have considered. It did for me.

If you’re looking to generate some extra income these days, I would suggest grab the 1,000 Ways to Make $1,000 Dollars book. The website for this book is http://tinyurl.com/knrsqt